I shed a tear once. It sent me into a violent rage. The records are sealed but the loss of life and property damage was incredible

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

My wife gets really angry with me when ours does that, or when the broadcasting company gets the timing of the program signals wrong.

Logged

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )

If i wanted a functional starfighter (not a science fantasy one like something from star wars) it would have to be a Viper.

All TV and movie space-fighters are very soft science-fiction at best. BSG is only marginally better than Star Wars in that regard, despite decades of improvement in special-effects techniques. B5's Starfury is a little better than BSG in avoiding lazy aircraft-carrier tropes, but still raises awkward questions, unless you turn your science-brain off.

They're soft military science as well. For theoretical void combat there is absolutely no good reason to have star fighters of any kind from ANY known continuity. The Star Marines series by Ian Douglas is pretty decent SciFi with solid science at least from the time, and where things really only get muzzy is applied alien tech that cheats, and starfighters on the grounds of rule of cool (his fighters are better then most) but the fact remains it's a waste of resources to create a fighter when you could be putting that much more weapons, targeting computers, reaction power, armor and life support into a behemoth. If we ever go to war amongst the stars it shall herald the return of battleship and dreadnought to their place at the center of naval (space type in this case) combat.

What kind of distances are we talking about with these fights, though? Assuming close-to-light speeds are possible, it's viable to have battles at very, very long ranges. Like earth-to-moon. Which will cause even miniscule errors in angle measurements to make any kind of shot go wide by miles. A lot of smaller ships will basically be impossible to hit. Also, with a void between ships, you cannot really have any kind of weapons that take down more than one ship per shot. A swarm of small ships with something like nuclear armaments that's able to penetrate shields would probably be able to take down very large things, and even though the dreadnought took down most, you'd probably see some slip by.

That particular nitpick will be debated till the American Civil War is taught in Ancient Terran History, and they still won't have an answer.

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

ackblom12

Absolutely. It's not uncommon to hear it called the War of Northern Agression in several parts of the South. Also downplaying the role of slavery. My thoughts on these things are 'not pleasant' at best.

I don't claim to be an expert on the ACW, but some years ago I came across this page by the late Sheldon Brown, a famous cycling guru, but also a man of wide general interests. His analysis of the South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Seceding States, and my subsequent confirmatory reading of that distasteful document, pretty much killed any doubts I had about the role of slavery and slave-owners in initiating the conflict.

Logged

"I would rather have questions that can't be answered, than answers that can't be questioned." Richard Feynman

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

Whenever anyone I'm talking to calls the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression or says how it wasn't about slavery it is like a verbal fedora. After that point I can disregard any and all things that they say and never talk to them again.

Logged

Rizzla: Man... I'm only interested in girls who've had penises.Rizzla: FuckRizzla: I mean girls who have penises.

I understand your point and I've been there. But consider that people beneath viewpoints you consider abhorrent can be surprisingly kind, understanding, smart. I might have included my late father-in-law, and I certainly include my next-door neighbor. If the abhorrent view is the first thing you know about the person and you withdraw, you won't know the rest.

"White dudes have this thing where they believe your best friend in the world can have opposing political ideas. Youíre supposed to be able to have healthy debate and disagreeing shouldnít harm your friendship.

Thatís gross and stupid. Its really easy to say that when all your disagreements are theoretical. Its easy to say when none of the laws passed actually effect your life. Fighting with your best friend about corporate regulations, school charters, educational funding, abortion, health care, voting restrictions, drug laws, taxes and all sorts of stuff is cool and lively because none of it is going to actually leave you in a bad spot.

Its different for the rest of us. I canít be friends with you if you think I shouldnít be allowed to vote. We canít be friends if you think my friends shouldnít have the ability to designate whatever gender they want and have that be legally recognized. We canít be friends if you think I donít deserve health care. Or if you think native children should be ripped away from their cultures and people. We canít be friends if you think closing down health care clinics in an attempt to end safe legal abortions is a good thing.

All these theoretical political ideas and lively debates effect real people, and I wonít be friends with someone who disagrees with me on them. Because disagreement means you donít see me or a whole bunch of my friends and family as human beings worthy of rights and respect."

Someone on the B5 newsgroup asked jms why Starfuries existed. As best I remember his answer had to do with either numerically overwhelming defenses or slipping through them and releasing unpleasant things, and preventing others from doing the same.

When anything can carry a nuclear warhead, small mobile things are adequately puissant.

My neighbor is glued to Fox News. It feeds his anger. He knows it does, but he doesn't change his information sources. We don't even talk about politics. His wife, talking to my wife, once used the N-word. They were confidantes, good friends if not best friends.

When my wife died before my eyes and his wife heard the approaching siren, without knowing what was happening she knew my front door was locked and hustled over with her key to let the the paramedics in. Since then they've had me over to dinner most Monday nights. We do for each other. I think we'd sacrifice some little bit of our wealth for one another. It's a rather loving relationship.

I abhor their political views. But what do I know? We're just three old white people, beneath the notice of people with weightier matters on their mind.

I disagree with a lot of people on a lot of subjects and I still manage to be friends with them. Social liberals and fiscal conservatives when mixed in an individual tend not not make friends for some reason. I never understood just how controversial "leave me the hell alone and do your own thing... and stop goddessdamn taxing me so much" could be.

On a holy shit we live in the future note...

I am online at 30,000ft

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

For some reason, I just remembered the Pledge of Allegiance, which I don't think I've recited since middle school. And in retrospect, it's very creepy to consider that we have people in primary school who recite it mindlessly every day.

"White dudes have this thing where they believe your best friend in the world can have opposing political ideas. Youíre supposed to be able to have healthy debate and disagreeing shouldnít harm your friendship.

Thatís gross and stupid. Its really easy to say that when all your disagreements are theoretical. Its easy to say when none of the laws passed actually effect your life. Fighting with your best friend about corporate regulations, school charters, educational funding, abortion, health care, voting restrictions, drug laws, taxes and all sorts of stuff is cool and lively because none of it is going to actually leave you in a bad spot.

Its different for the rest of us. I canít be friends with you if you think I shouldnít be allowed to vote. We canít be friends if you think my friends shouldnít have the ability to designate whatever gender they want and have that be legally recognized. We canít be friends if you think I donít deserve health care. Or if you think native children should be ripped away from their cultures and people. We canít be friends if you think closing down health care clinics in an attempt to end safe legal abortions is a good thing.

All these theoretical political ideas and lively debates effect real people, and I wonít be friends with someone who disagrees with me on them. Because disagreement means you donít see me or a whole bunch of my friends and family as human beings worthy of rights and respect."

For some reason, I just remembered the Pledge of Allegiance, which I don't think I've recited since middle school. And in retrospect, it's very creepy to consider that we have people in primary school who recite it mindlessly every day.

I just got the image of a midwife and a woman giving birth swinging towards each other on a trapeze - when they meet, the midwife pulls the baby out. The knife juggler is standing on the floor and cuts the umbilical cord with a a knifethrow.

Its different for the rest of us. I canít be friends with you if you think I shouldnít be allowed to vote. We canít be friends if you think my friends shouldnít have the ability to designate whatever gender they want and have that be legally recognized. We canít be friends if you think I donít deserve health care. Or if you think native children should be ripped away from their cultures and people. We canít be friends if you think closing down health care clinics in an attempt to end safe legal abortions is a good thing.

All these theoretical political ideas and lively debates effect real people, and I wonít be friends with someone who disagrees with me on them. Because disagreement means you donít see me or a whole bunch of my friends and family as human beings worthy of rights and respect."

Ackblom12 hits the nail on the head. People are entitled to their opinions, and I fully support their right to express them too, but they are wholly, solely, and inescapably 100% responsible for their opinions and how they choose to express them. The notion that people should be regarded as "kind" while holding and expressing, by word and deed, thoroughly vicious opinions, is simply failing to hold them accountable, in a culture of impunity for privilege.

Logged

"I would rather have questions that can't be answered, than answers that can't be questioned." Richard Feynman

Maybe it's age. I've had experiences like Redball's, neighbors who through their actions show themselves as caring, concerned people but who hold opinions (political & otherwise) that I find offensive. Does one confront, and have the person close off, or engage with them, model goodness and appeal to their better nature when such issues arise?

I am kind and tolerant, and accept that people can be products of their culture and era. Sometimes, kind and wonderful people from a dominant class don't think their words or actions carry the meaning they do. But, I also expect people to be capable of rational thought and self-examination and to be better people than they were raised to be. So I give them once chance. Someone says something terrible or offensive, and I calmly try to explain why it is not ok. If they are unwilling to think about it, to reexamine their beliefs and their behaviors... done, we can't be friends. If they can recognize that their prejudices are not ok, and that they need to work to get beyond them, I can be tolerant of their learning process, even if it sometimes includes frustrating debates where they figure out what things they were taught as children were bullshit.

I don't have to, or even want to agree with my friends about everything, but there are some issues which are not up for debate. We can disagree about policy priorities, or the particulars of how to get things done, but we can't disagree on fundamental issues of human equality, no matter how much fun you are at a party.

There is excellent pizza and fish in this part of the world. I must now search out SUSHI!

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

Absolutely. It's not uncommon to hear it called the War of Northern Agression in several parts of the South. Also downplaying the role of slavery. My thoughts on these things are 'not pleasant' at best.

My great-grandmother always used to echo her prior generation's sentiments with these exact words: "Don't you dare call it the Civil War! There weren't a damn thing civil about it!"

As a consequence of doing some work in the admin area of the forum, I noticed the proportion of members of this forum who registered using a gmail address. It was even more than I expected: 45%

Logged

"Being human, having your health; that's what's important."(from: Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi )"As long as we're all living, and as long as we're all having fun, that should do it, right?"(from: The Eccentric Family )

I'm donating to charity specifically so I can get new return address labels... does this make me a terrible person?

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

...Dallas is a dry county? Certainly didn't seem like it the few times I went there.

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.

There doesn't seem to be any standard for what 'semi-dry' means though. My county in Michican seems to be semi dry but I can drink at a restaurant or bar, buy liquor, beer or wine at a grocery store, a gas station or a liquor store on any day of the week, get my beer to go from a bar, or even have beer, wine, or liquor delivered.

My county in NY seems to be wet, though I can only buy liquor or wine from a liquor store, can't get alcohol delivered, or to go from a bar, can't by beer before noon on Sunday, and liquor stores must be closed one day a week (but not necessarily on Sunday).

Thank the goddess my new home state of Delaware is more civilized then all that horseshit.

Logged

I built the walls that make my life a prison, I built them all and cannot be forgiven... ...Sold my soul to carry your vendetta, So let me go before you can regret it, You've made your choice and now it's come to this, But that's price you pay when you're a monster with no name.